Alternatives to Elixir
A dynamic, functional programming language that runs on the Erlang VM for scalable, maintainable applications. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Elixir
A dynamic, functional programming language that runs on the Erlang VM for scalable, maintainable applications.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Elixir.
Erlang/OTP
The Erlang programming language and OTP runtime for building concurrent, fault-tolerant distributed systems.
Erlang/OTP is the underlying language and runtime for the same BEAM VM, offering the OTP fault-tolerance model with an older, less familiar syntax than Elixir.
Gleam
A type-safe functional programming language that runs on the Erlang VM and JavaScript runtimes.
Gleam also runs on the Erlang VM but adds static types and can target JavaScript, with a younger, smaller community than Elixir.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Elixir as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
OCaml
A functional programming language with a strong static type system and a native-code compiler.
Elixir is a functional language on the Erlang VM with a gradual type system rather than OCaml's strict static typing, suited to concurrent back-end systems.
Ruby
A dynamic, open-source programming language focused on simplicity and programmer productivity.
Elixir is a functional language on the fault-tolerant Erlang VM suited to concurrent back ends, which takes adjustment for developers used to Ruby's object-oriented style.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Go
An open-source compiled programming language from Google with built-in concurrency and a module system.
Scala
A programming language that combines object-oriented and functional programming, targeting the JVM and web.
Rust
A compiled systems programming language with no garbage collector, installed through the rustup toolchain manager.
Python
A general-purpose programming language used for scripting, web backends, data analysis and machine learning.
